How to identify when a team member is ready for more responsibility
Quick note: Make 2026 your best business year yet. Get Leadership Letters every Monday to level up as a leader.
In a recent article, I shared a leadership revelation I had this year. When one of our heads of department announced she was pregnant, I quickly realised how little I knew about that side of our business.
Although I’d spent the past 18 years in sales, I wasn’t intimately involved in property management. We could either hire a temp replacement or look at our current team to see if they were ready for more responsibility.
At Nitschke, we prefer to promote from within. We get better outcomes because we don’t have to train an outsider on the Nitschke vision, values, and vibe. They’re already a cultural fit, which is most critical.
Here’s how we approached it as a leadership team.
The trap of ‘potential’ talent
One of the biggest traps you can fall into as a leader is jumping too far ahead of someone. You might see their potential, but they might not (yet). You risk pushing someone into a career path they’re not ready for – or worse, don’t want.
Embrace EOS
We look at the fundamentals of EOS before promoting anyone. We identify three things in that person:
- Do they get it?
- Do they want it?
- Do they have the capacity to do it?
You can’t just focus on the person’s potential and blindly promote. They have to be suited for the role and actually want it, as well as have capacity for it. Someone might be perfect for it, but if they’re going through a challenging time in their personal life, it’s probably not the right fit.
You can’t make allowances for any of those three requirements. This protects both the business and the team member.
Another EOS suggestion is to map out (or revisit) your Accountability Chart. Look at the seats you need to fill and discuss what the business actually needs.
Allow for discussion
If you want to build a strong team and culture, you have to be close to your people. There needs to be enough trust that they feel they have a voice. For example, with the recent changes in our Property Management division, we engaged heavily with team members, both individually and in meetings.
Because we have established that trust, we had team members speak up and step up. We created an environment to share their concerns with the department and prioritised working on the issues they raised first.
They feel safe to speak up and see that we listened, which helps them feel ready to play their role. It’s not a perfect system, but so far so good.
Reminder: Get Leadership Letters every Monday to level up as a leader.
